A true story about an Anvil and a man named Earl.
I've had this Anvil for about 10, maybe 12 years now. I got is while visiting my brother all those many years ago. I was at his house one day visiting, he and his neighbor have lived next door to each other since my brother was 24 when he bought his house. His neighbor, Earl, was a machinist all his life, for decades. From as far back as in the late 20's when he was a young boy. He still has a very old lathe in his garage. That day we were standing by the fence where my brother and Earl talk all the time, we were enjoying Oranges from Earls Orange tree.
The Oranges from his orange tree are by far the sweetest you will ever taste. While talking with Earl I noticed this Anvil sitting is his yard all rusted up. I asked him what he was going to do with it. He said, "well its been sitting in that same spot for atleast 10 years or more". He said he had had it atleast 30 or 40 years, and said it was very old, maybe 30 years old when he got it.
So this Anvil actually could be as old as 80 plus years old give or take. After talking with Earl for some time, he said "if you want that old Anvil, take it, I'le never use it again". I said, "are you sure, I dont want to take your Anvil if you have had it that long" He said "If I hav'nt used it after all these years It wont ever get used, besides Im too old to do that kind of work.
Earl was about 82 yrs old at the time he gave me this Anvil. He is still alive and about 94, or 95 now. My brother still talks to him, goes over and checks on him often. He does'nt get out much any more. Every time I use this thing Im reminded of Earl and just what a kind old guy he was and still is. My brother has allways looked out for him for some 20 years now. Earl has lived in the house next to my brother for something like 60 years. My brother is 44 now.
I thanked him for the Anvil and headed home. I took it to work the next day to one of the machine shops I worked at. I checked the top surface for flatness, I figured I would find it out of flat from all the years of being hammered on and ofcourse I did.
This Anvil has been seasoned for decades so I knew it was going to be tough. I set up on a conventional mill and machined the Cast Iron base flat on the bottom, then setup to machine the hardened top Anvil surface flat so they would be Paralell. I can tell you this was one tough VERY HARD piece of steel to cut. I could not get a 3/4 carbide endlill to last thru the time it took to make the several passes to clean up the surface. I was using a coolent mister and a good slow cutting speed.
This damn thing was freaking hard. I ended up putting it in our cnc mill and using a shell mill to clean up the surface. That kind of power and flood coolent did the trick. So I machined it flat with in .0005, then I also counter bored the 4 bolt holes to mount it to a table. I grit blased it to paint it but never got around to painting it. It need to be blasted again before paint. I will allways cherish this old hunk of steel, I will hand it down to my son one day, and I will tell him about Earl when he's old enough to really understand about how being kind can affect a persons life.
Just thought I would share a very cool memory of a very cool old man named Earl.
I found this link.
http://www.kohlswa.com/
I've had this Anvil for about 10, maybe 12 years now. I got is while visiting my brother all those many years ago. I was at his house one day visiting, he and his neighbor have lived next door to each other since my brother was 24 when he bought his house. His neighbor, Earl, was a machinist all his life, for decades. From as far back as in the late 20's when he was a young boy. He still has a very old lathe in his garage. That day we were standing by the fence where my brother and Earl talk all the time, we were enjoying Oranges from Earls Orange tree.
The Oranges from his orange tree are by far the sweetest you will ever taste. While talking with Earl I noticed this Anvil sitting is his yard all rusted up. I asked him what he was going to do with it. He said, "well its been sitting in that same spot for atleast 10 years or more". He said he had had it atleast 30 or 40 years, and said it was very old, maybe 30 years old when he got it.
So this Anvil actually could be as old as 80 plus years old give or take. After talking with Earl for some time, he said "if you want that old Anvil, take it, I'le never use it again". I said, "are you sure, I dont want to take your Anvil if you have had it that long" He said "If I hav'nt used it after all these years It wont ever get used, besides Im too old to do that kind of work.
Earl was about 82 yrs old at the time he gave me this Anvil. He is still alive and about 94, or 95 now. My brother still talks to him, goes over and checks on him often. He does'nt get out much any more. Every time I use this thing Im reminded of Earl and just what a kind old guy he was and still is. My brother has allways looked out for him for some 20 years now. Earl has lived in the house next to my brother for something like 60 years. My brother is 44 now.
I thanked him for the Anvil and headed home. I took it to work the next day to one of the machine shops I worked at. I checked the top surface for flatness, I figured I would find it out of flat from all the years of being hammered on and ofcourse I did.
This Anvil has been seasoned for decades so I knew it was going to be tough. I set up on a conventional mill and machined the Cast Iron base flat on the bottom, then setup to machine the hardened top Anvil surface flat so they would be Paralell. I can tell you this was one tough VERY HARD piece of steel to cut. I could not get a 3/4 carbide endlill to last thru the time it took to make the several passes to clean up the surface. I was using a coolent mister and a good slow cutting speed.
This damn thing was freaking hard. I ended up putting it in our cnc mill and using a shell mill to clean up the surface. That kind of power and flood coolent did the trick. So I machined it flat with in .0005, then I also counter bored the 4 bolt holes to mount it to a table. I grit blased it to paint it but never got around to painting it. It need to be blasted again before paint. I will allways cherish this old hunk of steel, I will hand it down to my son one day, and I will tell him about Earl when he's old enough to really understand about how being kind can affect a persons life.
Just thought I would share a very cool memory of a very cool old man named Earl.
I found this link.
http://www.kohlswa.com/
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. My mom told me about it. Said Devin (my brother) cried like alot over losing his neighbor and kind old friend. I called and talked to him about Earl's passing and told him I was very sorry for the loss of his friend. He said Earl's funeral was amazing. Earl was friends with all kinds of people young and old. 
